Yesterday (on Tuesday, April 19), the Attorney General's Office has determined four suspects of this cooking oil case; and I demand (officials) to investigate until 'it is finished', so we can know who is playing around (with the CPO export)
Jakarta (ANTARA) - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has called on law enforcement officials to fully investigate alleged corruption in the export of crude palm oil (CPO) that had caused a scarcity of cooking oil in the country.

"Yesterday (on Tuesday, April 19), the Attorney General's Office has determined four suspects of this cooking oil case; and I demand (officials) to investigate until 'it is finished', so we can know who is playing around (with the CPO export)," Jokowi stated in the President's Secretariat YouTube Channel here on Wednesday.

After visiting Bangkal Baru Market in Sumenep in East Java, Jokowi delivered a press statement in which he drew attention to the four suspects in the cooking oil corruption case, who were announced by the Attorney General's Office.


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The president also observed that people still reeled from problems pertaining to the supplies of cooking oil commodities. Hence, in tackling the increasing price of cooking oil, the government has started to provide cash aid for buying cooking oil, at Rp100 thousand for each beneficiary.

The assistance will be offered once every month in April, May, and June, so the total aid disbursed would reach Rp300 thousand. This effort aims to maintain the people's purchasing power, as the global CPO prices had risen.

Due to the increasing global price of CPO, domestic firms producing CPO tended to export it overseas.

"The producers tend to export owing to the high prices overseas," Jokowi added.

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The government has also revoked the highest retail price (HET) of packaged cooking oil at Rp14,000/l due to its ineffectiveness that caused scarcity in markets. In its place, the government decided to subsidize bulk cooking oil priced at Rp14,000/l.

However, Jokowi still views the subsidy policy as not being effective in lowering the price of cooking oil.

"In the markets, I see many times that the bulk cooking oil prices do not follow the HET. This means there are manipulations," he stated.


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Translator: Mentari G, Kenzu T
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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